


two hands longing for each other's warmth

by Natasi (SwordDraconis113)



Category: Lost Girl
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/F, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Sexual Slavery, Magical Pregnancy, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-02-18 09:19:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2343254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwordDraconis113/pseuds/Natasi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Fertility charm?”</p><p>“No…” Lauren shakes her head. “Bo and I haven’t…” she dismisses the word, but Dyson doesn’t look awkward. “Not for six months, if I was pregnant I’d know bef-“ He’s holding her eyes steady. Afraid to say something.  “What?”</p><p>“Evony.”</p><p>“Evony-?“ Lauren laughs, then stops suddenly, a chill running through her body. Everything had started after but- no. It wasn’t possible. Not unless… “Evony.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Important: the implied/referenced material only fits into ONE section and it is _not_ explicit. Only briefly mentioned through dialogue, but I thought some warnings are better than absolutely none.
> 
> I've had this in my drafts for a while. Originally it started as a one-shot, then I did some time skips and I was tossing with the idea of making it into a longfic, but as there's something else I'm writing that's a little too similar to get away with, I decided to just keep it as is and make it a short story with time skips. As you do.

i. 

It starts as something simple. Nausea, backache, missed periods. Usual things that she doesn’t notice at first. Kenzi’s dead, Bo’s mourning, they’re all stressed, it’s not unusual – biologically, it’s down right common. The signs go unnoticed and Lauren continues to skip meals, burying her head in work, looking for something, anything to prepare for Hel. Then, one day at the Dal, she collapses. 

It’s Dyson who picks her up, who prepares to take her to the hospital when he hears it. It’s low, soft, almost unheard, but there. A second heart beat. 

“Is she okay?” Bo asks, pressing a hand to the doctor’s hand. “Is something wrong?” 

Dyson looks to her, the answer a short, “She’ll be fine,” moved with confusion. How? No, it didn’t matter, it wasn’t his job to pry. 

Still, he takes her down to Trick’s, lies her down and sits with her until she wakes up. Bo’s gone, busy, but she stays for as long as she can, furious that she’s eventually forced to leave. 

When Lauren wakes, she knows something’s wrong with the look Dyson gives her. She notices the brows, the small pout, but doesn’t submit. Quickly she works out it’s a sugar low, and allows him to give her water, give her food. Then, when she’s sitting up and no one’s around, she relents. “What is it Dyson?” 

“Do you know?” 

“Know what?” 

He looks awkward for a moment, a breath pulling through as he looks down at his hands. “That you’re pregnant,” he finally says. 

A joke, it seems to her. She laughs, placing the plate down. “Don’t be ridiculous.” 

“Lauren…” 

“Very funny wolf, but-“ 

“This isn’t a joke. Lauren.” She stills, believing his tone, unable to believe his words. “You’ve noticed symptoms, haven’t you?” He places a hand on her belly and Lauren flinches, pulling away from him. The signs add up in her head. But no, they’re just stress to her. She’s not pregnant. Pregnant means a life growing inside of her, pregnant means- 

“No. I don’t- I haven’t… There’s _equipment_ needed for that that I don’t have any desire to-!” she snaps of the words, glaring. It’s not possible. 

“Fertility charm?” 

“No…” Lauren shakes her head. “Bo and I haven’t…” she dismisses the word, but Dyson doesn’t look awkward. “Not for six months, if I was pregnant I’d know bef-“ He’s holding her eyes steady. Afraid to say something. “What?” 

“Evony.” 

“Evony-?“ Lauren laughs, then stops suddenly, a chill running through her body. Everything had started _after_ but- no. It wasn’t possible. Not unless… “Evony.” 

“Evony.” 

“No.” 

“But-“ 

“Don’t.” She glares at him, pulling away. “I’m not, I can’t- she-“ she takes a breath, running a hand through her hair, a hand on her belly. Okay. She just needs an official test, a diagnosis. She can’t run off on maybe’s or lie around in denial. She has to know. 

She knows. 

ii. 

She doesn’t tell Bo, not at first. She’s too busy pacing around Dyson’s apartment, hands curled in her hair. “Evony?” she says, glaring. “How did _Evony_ knock me up?” 

“Maybe-“ 

“I know how she knocked me up! It was a rhetorical question,” she glares, then sighs. Dyson’s eyes are gentle, understanding. She appreciates it more than she could ever say. And loathes it even more. “Sorry, it’s just-“ 

“A shock,” he nods. She wants to be thankful for the understanding. Really. It’s just, what she needs and what she doesn’t. She can’t explain it. She’s frustrated and placing the blame on Dyson, as if he knocked her up. Damn him. “Are you going to tell her?” 

“Bo?” 

“Evony.” 

Lauren clicks her jaw, moving to glare at the wall. It’s dirty, she wants to clean it. It’s probably bad for her health, for the baby- no. She can’t have a child. Not with the fae. “I don’t even know if I want a child, Dyson. I can’t-” 

“Do you?” he asks. “Do you want a child?” 

“Yes, but…” she shook her head. “Not when I’m being chased by the fae, it’s not fair to bring someone into a world when I’m not safe. Secure. I don’t even have a house any more!” She’d lost it when she chose Bo, and she doesn’t regret the situation, not for a moment. 

“You have Bo’s-“ 

“The Dal, Bo’s and yours are no place to raise a child,” she shakes her head, even considering the idea of a toddler is something horrible. “Besides, the child wasn’t conceived through natural circumstances. Who knows what might happen. It could…it could get sick, it could be unstable…” her throat clenches at the idea, constricting painfully at the image of something in her belly being sick. It’s a fetus, it has a heartbeat. It’s a part of her. 

And a part of Evony. 

Swallowing, she looks at Dyson, blinking rapidly as she tries to imagine a small her with brown curls. “I…” and a sob rackets her body. 

He stands up, walking over to hold her and slowly, she exhales, shuddering against him. She wants this child. She’d wanted one since her and Nadia had spoken so many years ago, but… not like this. It isn’t fair. “Just breathe,” Dyson tells her, a hand curling in her hair, holding her so she isn’t fall apart. “You’ve got time.” 

Lauren shakes her head. She doesn’t. She doesn’t have time, that was the thing. The issue. She has to make a choice soon. 

“I should tell her,” she says. “It’s only fair. I should tell her.” She doesn’t want to. 

iii. 

Evony’s face is twisted, somewhere between anger and pain. Lauren turns away, folding her arms over her belly. She isn’t showing. Not yet. But her breasts hurt, everything hurt and only some of it is directly related to the pregnancy. “ _How_?” 

“The serum,” Lauren sighs. “It’s the only thing I can think of, unless someone shoved a fertility totem under your mattress.” 

Evony shakes her head. No, Lauren knows Evony would never allow something like that. But it doesn’t really matter the _how_ , all that matters is that she _is._ “I don’t want another child,” Evony glares. 

“Then you don’t have to worry,” Lauren snaps back. “I’m telling you because you deserve to know. But it’s my body, and I’ll do what I want with it.” 

“So you’re getting rid of it?” 

_Getting rid of it_ . Lauren flinches at the word choice. It’s not a doll, it’s a _child,_ a life form growing inside of her. But something about Evony’s expression makes her stop. Slowly, she settles down on the couch near her. Takes a breath and waits to find the words. 

“I was thinking about adopting it out. I couldn’t…” Lauren believes in choice, but she can’t. Not for her, not when Dyson can hear its heart beat. If she’d known before, then maybe. But it has a heartbeat and… That’s her choice. “But this isn’t a natural pregnancy.” 

Evony looks at her, softly for just a moment. Then her brows press together and she looks away, glaring sharply. “Do what you want. I have no desire to be a mother again.” 

Lauren thinks she can feel the child move inside her. It’s a wave of nausea, of remembering Massimo who wanted so greatly to please his mother. 

“Don’t worry,” she hisses to the human Morrigan. “I’d never give you the chance.” Evony’s shoulders rise, shuddering Lauren wonders what makes her so horrible, what happened that she broke her son until he wanted nothing but her. 

“Good,” Evony whispers, holding her head up high as she leaves. 

iv. 

“Pregnant,” Bo follows. Tamsin’s eyes narrow, looking at Lauren’s belly. 

“Well it explains your tits,” the valkyrie says. When everyone looks at her, she gestures defensively, “What? Are you telling me that none of you noticed that they’re larger than Bo’s now?” 

Dyson looks away awkwardly. Trick frowns and Bo just drops her head into her hands. “Evony,” she asks, rising her eyes to Lauren. “Morrigan- _Evony_ ?” 

Lauren nods stiffly. 

“And…” Bo swallows. “Do you want this?” 

Lauren shrugs. She hasn’t spoken much. Just remained siting with Dyson next to her for comfort, ready to protect her. There was something odd about Dyson on her side, against Bo. But comforting. She feels his hand on hers, giving a squeeze. It couldn’t be any more surreal if he was the father of the growing child inside of her. 

“Does she know?” Tamsin asks. 

Lauren nods, speaking out a croaked, “yes.” Bo looks ready to argue, then deflates. She understands. God, she shouldn’t. Had the situations reversed… 

“What do _you_ want, Lauren?” Bo asks softly, looking up at her. She’s trying to smile, but Lauren understands. It’s a lot of information piled on suddenly. “Are…will you come home?” Home. To her, and to Evony. Evony who’s living with them, giving them information when they needed it. No, Lauren can’t. She doesn’t want to be with her, near her. 

“Dyson has more room,” she says, looking away. 

“Well, I was wondering why you were spending so much time together, I thought…” Bo stops, looking between them as she realizes the threesome joke would be unappreciated. Swallowing, she nods her head. “I miss you,” she tells her. “But whatever you choose, you have my full support.” 

Lauren breathes out, there’s something about those words, though she knew they were coming, that makes everything easier. Hearing them out loud is what she needed. 

“Thank you.” 

v. 

“What are you doing here?” Lauren glares. Evony sits down beside her in the waiting room, sighing as she reclines back. “Evony, you-“ 

“It’s my child as well,” she snaps. “Or at least made up from half of me. Somehow.” 

Lauren swallows, looking away. “I thought you didn’t want to take part.” 

“It’s complicated.” 

It’s been two weeks since they last spoke. Two weeks of silence. Lauren reclines back in the seat, holding her stomach. She doesn’t want to know. “I won’t let you,” she warns her. “I’ll move to Australia before I let you do to them what you did to Massimo.” 

“Massimo is a far more complex issue then you realize,” Evony tells her. “Don’t assume you know my motivations. You don’t even know me.” 

“I feel like I’ve known you long enough to take a guess.” 

Evony shakes her head, disgusted, but she stays. Then picks at her nails. Finally she looks up at Lauren. “So…you’re keeping the child.” 

“I am,” Lauren says. “Maybe. I don’t know. It’s only twelve weeks in. I haven’t made a decision. I’m just here to make sure everything’s going smoothly.” She feels her eyes prickle, laughter on her lips. “I mean, where do I find a set of fae parents who I know won’t use the child for nefarious deeds. Or what if someone who has it out for me, or you, decides-“ 

“Lauren…” 

“What, Evony?” She snaps, harsher than she intended. 

Evony looks at her, softly, before she shuts her eyes, turning away. “It doesn’t matter. Go to your appointment, clearly I’m not wanted.” She pushes off the chair, leaving before Lauren gets a chance to understand what that was even about. 

But when Lauren hears her name called, she swallows and looks over to the exit. Evony had come, had actively asked for which doctor she was going for, and come to her. 

Lauren turns away, following the doctor. She doesn’t want things to be complicated, she doesn’t want her to be shades of grey morals. She wants Evony to be evil. It’s easier to think of Evony as a villain who manipulated her, rather than the woman who playfully listened to her geek out over Star Trek. 

vi. 

“She difficult,” Bo says. “Defensive and _mean_ , but…she spends a lot of time by herself. So I don’t have to deal with her a lot.” 

“She uses up all the hot water,” Tamsin says. “But she has nightmares so I-” 

“She does?” Bo asks. Lauren looks between them, frowning. 

Shrugging, Tamsin takes a swig of beer. “Not my business. Last time I confronted her, she bit my head off so whatever.” 

Bo frowns, then turns to Lauren curiously. “Why are you asking?” Lauren shakes her head. She doesn’t want to explain. She gives a lame excuse about wanting to understand Evony’s motives. Doesn’t tell them that Evony came to her at the doctor’s appointment. Doesn’t tell them that she can’t sleep at night. 

She’s spoken with Dyson, explained what happened. But Dyson sees her as just the Morrigan, as the woman who attempted to torture him because she was bored. 

“Okay,” she nods. “Thank you.” 

“Lauren-“ 

“It’s fine,” she assures. “I’m just thinking about making contact.” 

“Why?” Bo asks. 

“Because she has a right?” 

“I think previous parenting shows otherwise.” 

Lauren sighs, growling as she looks between them both. “Technically, she didn’t raise him. Vex did. And there’s no way I’m letting him near me.” 

“Massimo was creepy _for_ Evony, remember? There was that whole Oedipus thing going on,” Bo reminds her. “Look, it’s your life, I just think that…” 

“That what?” 

“That you should be careful.” 

“Right.” Standing up, Lauren pushed away from the table. “Well when I want your opinion on a mystical pregnancy, I’ll ask.” She doesn’t need people criticizing her. 

Still, she rings up Bo later, using hormones as a lame excuse, Dyson laughs at her. 

vii. 

“Here,” Evony says. She’s turned up at her door, unannounced at three in the afternoon with ginger ale. “Massimo wasn’t a difficult pregnancy, but he wasn’t easy, either.” 

“Thanks,” she says, taking the bag. “The nausea’s supposed to ease now, though.” 

“For some,” Evony shrugs. “Look, I don’t even know how far along you are, so I took a guess.” 

“Sixteen weeks,” Lauren admits. “According to the books, I may start feeling her move around.” 

Evony nods, looking down at the belly. Slowly, she lifts her eyes and walks awkwardly around the apartment. “Massimo was my third child, I miscarried the first two,” she says carefully, turning to look at Lauren. “The man I was with…the less said, the better.” 

Lauren blinks, confused by the sudden turn of events. Before realizing that they’re the motives for her arrival. Evony isn’t here to drop off ginger ale and bond over pregnancy. “But he was human, wasn’t he?” 

Evony flicks her eyes away. “My kind has unusual circumstances. When we…choose longterm partners, we make a deal. The lover is offered an expanded life, and I’m able to have a feed that’s constant. There’s more to it than that, however it’s not spoken about outside leanan sidhe culture so you’ll forgive me for skipping the details.” 

“But there’s more to it, I mean. There’s-“ 

“A catch. Yes. It’s never done lightly.” Lauren slowly moved, sitting down on her lounge. She wanted to offer her whole attention, if only out of politeness. 

Quietly, Evony sits down on the armchair across from her. “What happened?” Lauren asks. 

“I fell in love,” she smils bitterly. “I offered him something that’s outlawed, a way that we could spend the rest of our lives together. However, to even _ask_ , a ceremony has to be in place, essentially a bonding ceremony. I’d thought he’d accept. Longevity being something humanity craved, but…he didn’t.” 

Lauren frowns, her stomach dropping as she began to understand. 

“It doesn’t seem like much, does it? He refused. If it’d been just that simple, I would have accepted and moved on. Maybe thrown him into an incinerator out of humiliation,” Evony shrugs. “However, a bonding ceremony can’t be terminated midway. It requires a bond. If he doesn’t agree to be _mine_ , I essentially, become _his_.” 

“A slave?” 

“A _bound_ slave. Slaves have some freewill, some ability. Their control is fear, and believe me I am expert in keeping slaves in line. But…this was different. He did with me as he desired, and even though I had the desire and the ability to rid of him, I was unable to. Then, by some miracle, he died. The circumstances doesn’t matter, what does is that a child had produced between us. Massimo had been the only…” Evony trailed off, but the soft flicker of her expression gave it away. “But when his father died, Massimo had by that time, learnt some of his habits. Being a product of the bond, I was, in some ways, bound to him.” 

“But you kept him.” 

“I loved him, he was the only good I had, but he was also capable of being able to control me, even at the age of six, I could see it. _Feel_ it. So I controlled him. But I couldn’t stand him by that point, so I carted him off to Vex and did my duties of making him broken and _mine_. I wouldn’t become anyone’s slave after that. But don’t mistake what I did as me not loving my son. I did, I could never kill him but I would never go through that, not after fifteen years where I couldn’t eat without-” Lauren sees her shudder, before she looks away. 

It’s vulnerable, and a part of her wants to reach out, to take her in her arms, but she knows her hand would only be swatted away. Evony wouldn’t respect her if she told her something ridiculous as ‘you’ll be okay’. 

How could you ever be okay? 

Swallowing, Lauren tells her instead, “It doesn’t make up for everything you’ve done. It doesn’t make it right.” 

“I’m aware. I’m not offering you something so I can throw a pity party, Lauren. I’m explaining so that you understand why I did what I did to Massimo.” 

“You broke him.” 

“And what would you have done?” Evony asks. “Allowed him to wander free?” she lets out a barking laugh, tossing her head back at the absurdity. “Look what he did to you, to himself, let alone what he did to me. No, I gave him every opportunity, but I made him aware that he was always _mine_. I brought him into this world. I _made_ him.” 

“You _broke_ him.” 

“It was either that or kill him, and I could never have done that.” Evony stops, her voice quiet as she sighs, looking up at Lauren. “I was both thankful and angry to…Bo,” she says, using the name carefully. 

“You want a part of my child’s life.” 

Evony looks vulnerable, before she turns her head away, a mask setting over her features. “Regardless of what you may think of the situation, how this child was conceived, to me, it’s the first child that came from something good.” 

Lauren laughs bitterly. “I’d hardly call the situation good.” 

Laughing herself, Evony shakes her head. “No, I suppose not. But you are, Lauren. And had I been still fae, I may have eventually asked you.” 

Blinking, Lauren sits up carefully. “Are you saying-“ 

“No, I’m not saying I’m falling for you or anything so absurd. I’m saying that if, given time, I could have reconsidered the idea of binding myself to something so I didn’t have to feed constantly. It’s troublesome.” 

“But not now.” 

“No, not now.” 

Lauren looksd at her carefully, confused by the feeling in her chest. It feels odd that while fae, Evony may have loved her, but it was being human that made Lauren wonder if she could love the Morrigan. Swallowing, Lauren feels herself ask, “Stay?” 

Evony smiles, turning to look at her. “I didn’t realize a sob story was the way to seducing you.” 

“It’s not. But my hormones aren’t stella at the moment.” 

Rolling her eyes, Evony pushes off the armchair to stand in front of her. “Another time,” she whispers, kissing her cheek. 

viii. 

Bo gets along with Evony less and less. Lauren’s somewhat tempted to tell her what she knows, but she also knows that if she did, whatever (flimsy) trust had been build between her and the Morrigan, will burn indefinitely. 

So when Evony disappears, Lauren’s eighteen weeks along and beginning to show, she does the only natural thing she could do in that stage, and yells at everyone who tries to touch her belly without her permission. She doesn’t care if it’s a stranger or if it’s Bo. Her belly, her child, her rules. 

The child moves, and kicks and makes Lauren feel like she starving. At one stage, Lauren’s staring at a piece of raw steak Dyson’s about to cook, and realizes that she was _seriously_ low on iron because dammit, she could eat it like that. Just sink her teeth in. It would be so good. 

She makes Dyson stock up on iron rich food. And still, Lauren feels her energy levels deplete. 

Dyson is her favorite person at the moment. Dyson will get up at four in the morning to go to the only shop in a ten-mile radius, and get her a vanilla milkshake and fries – sometimes with tomato sauce – place them into the milkshake and only partially judge her. 

The first time Bo hears her moan about weird cravings, she’s grossed out. Tamsin’s _seriously_ grossed out. And Trick reminisced about Isabo being pregnant with Aife. 

Which is weird. 

She doesn’t want weird. She wants food. 

It was on one of her own, four in the afternoon walks to get a milkshake and fries, that Evony re-appears. She gets her the milkshake, fries, places them in the milkshake without needing to be asked and then asks Lauren to come with her. In a taxi. To some house. 

Lauren thinks the neighborhood’s pretty nice. Especially when she sees children playing in the middle of the road. 

“It’s yours,” Evony tells her, when they arrive, stepping out in front of house that’s attractive, but modest. Perfect. “It’s in your name, the paperwork-“ 

“What? How? What?” The milkshake is empty, Lauren had been using the last of the fries to drag against milk suds. The last fry drops from her fingers, back into the cup. Evony smirks. 

“It’s yours,” she repeats. “I pulled some strings in the human world. Your interpol record is… unfortunately misplaced.” 

“Why?” 

“Well I can hardly expect you to raise a child when you’re looking over your shoulder every other day.” Evony’s expression flickers, looking back to the house. She leads Lauren through a gate, past the somewhat overgrown, but easily fixable, garden, to inside. Three bedrooms, a study, large windows, a kitchen large enough for everything, and a _backyard._ Lauren blinks, her heart swelling. She could raise a family here. 

“Why?” she asks again. 

“Because I can’t have our child in Dyson’s or Bo’s deathtrap of a place,” Evony’s face scrunches up, disgusted as she looks around. “I didn’t furnish it, I had a feeling my taste would be…unwelcome.” 

“I can’t accept this.” 

“Bullshit.” 

“No,” Lauren shakes her head. “Evony, this is too much. You bought me a _house_.” 

“Most of my bank accounts may be frozen, but I still have access to _some_ funds, and enough that this barely makes a dent.” 

“No,” Lauren shakes her head. She wants this, god she wants this. It has a fence and a yard and she could get a cat or a dog, or both, and a wife and- Lauren blinks, shaking her head. 

“What do you want from me?” Evony snaps. “I do something, it’s not good enough, I do something else and suddenly I’m not doing enough. What the fuck do you want, Lauren?” 

“I don’t know!” Lauren turns, looking at her with tears in her eyes. She’s about to cry and it’s making her really mad that she’s about to cry and that just makes her want to cry more and- 

“Here,” Evony pulls out a small packet of tissues, handing it over. Then, the baby kicks and Lauren gasps. It’s hard, really hard. Evony looks down at her. “Is-“ 

“Kicking.” 

“Oh.” She’s still for a moment, before breathing in a breath. “Can-“ 

Lauren grabs her hand, placing it over her belly. She holds it there, for what feels like five minutes, before the baby kicks again. Then, Evony smiles, her expression warming. It quickly disperses, and her hand’s pulled away, leaving Lauren shocked. 

But with the memory of perfect happy, vulnerability on Evony’s face. 

ix. 

“She got you a _house_?” Bo yells. 

Lauren bursts into tears, and after much comfort on both Dyson’s and Bo’s behalf, she calms down again. 

With Bo keeping her emotions in check, because right now, everything seems to make Lauren cry. “When did she-“ 

“Two weeks ago?” 

“And-“ Bo stops herself, swallowing back her frustration. “So…where is she now?” 

Lauren shrugs, lying. Evony’s around. Dyson thinks she goes for walks around the shops, looking at baby products. But there’s a cafe, with a booth, that she sits with Evony and sometimes they talk, sometimes they yell, and sometimes Lauren just cries as Evony pats her hand politely and flicks through her magazine. 

The patrons probably think Evony’s abusing her. Or something. Once or twice a waiter’s made a comment and Evony’s just returned with a short, “you could make a complaint with the police, but I don’t think they’d take you seriously with that haircut.” 

Lauren’s usually stopped crying but that time, and feels absolutely horrible for herself, which means time for cake and Evony to bitch about her wardrobe collection being considerably down sized. It’s nice. Evony doesn’t _really_ treat her all that different. At most, she tries to hold back the more severe snarks she has. 

Though on a few occasions she’s commented about had fat Lauren’s getting. Which Lauren laughs off most of the time, because she is, the child’s growing inside of her and it makes it easier to tease about how fat Evony must have been too, at one stage. 

“What are you going to do?” 

“I don’t know,” Lauren admits. “It’s mine. I can do whatever I want.” 

“That’s…really nice of her,” Bo admits. Looking pathetic like she wished she could have bought her a house, which makes Lauren angry. Evony bought her a house the same way someone else might buy someone coffee. Nice, yes, but not in the way Bo thought. 

x. 

It’s only because she needs a real baby room that she accepts the house. Bo, Tamsin and Dyson shop for supplies with her. With Bo cooing over cradles and Tamsin looking at her like she’s crazy. 

When Dyson even suggest the baby animals mobile, Lauren informs him that she’s going to buy an educational mobile. With numbers and colors and an assort of shapes. Tamsin rolls her eyes, but Lauren sees her stare at the little panda onesie longer than was necessary. 

When the furniture arrives, Bo and Dyson _assure_ Lauren that they can build it. Tamsin watches, as she sits back in a rocking chair, reading the baby book and making the odd comment every now and again. “The chord turns black and _does what_?” 

“Falls off. It’s not the chord, it’s just a knot form the umbilical-“ 

“That’s disgusting.” 

Lauren smiles, amused. “You haven’t even read the worst parts.” 

“I will teach the little thing how to knock boys flat on their ass but I will not, ever, be placed on babysitting duty,” Tamsin warns her. 

Lauren feels her heart clench as she looks at Tamsin, wishing Kenzi was there. Kenzi…Kenzi she would have trusted. The difference in Tamsin is so obvious that Lauren considers the child’s middle name quietly, to herself. 

xii. 

Lauren’s desperate for sex, and after a not-so-serious joke about penetration and dimples, Bo’s been avoiding touching her in anyway that isn’t platonic. 

Though, even before then, Bo had been hesitant in how she handled her. In fact, Lauren hadn’t had sex since she slept with Evony and turned her human. 

And somehow that was Evony’s fault. Which is why there’s a long drawn out argument that lasts a few hours with the Morrigan, and Lauren’s not quite sure how she ended up naked in bed with her, but she definitely not complaining. 

Evony assures her she’s not into _cuddling_ but Lauren feels a head on her shoulder, and a hand drawing patterns on her showing belly, telling her otherwise. Whenever the child kicks, she can see Evony shut her eyes. But before Lauren can make the mistake of asking a stupid question, Evony goes down on her again, then showers and tries to leave. Lauren’s not sure how she moves from the bed to where Evony is, but suddenly she has the woman’s wrist in her hand, stopping her from putting her pants on. 

“You don’t have to leave,” Lauren tells her. 

“I’m not one for-“ 

“I know. But…don’t feel like I don’t want you here.” 

Evony stops, dropping the clothes before she folds her arms. There’s a pause, something twisted, mockingly on Evony’s face and Lauren feels the baby squirm inside of her. “And pray, tell, what do you expect to follow? I stay the night, on and off for a while, we do a little dance where I fall in love, there’s some big celebration then we get married, have the little baby and-“ 

“Shut up,” Lauren snaps “Why do you have to make it sound like that is the worst thing in the world?” 

“Because it was,” Evony whispers the words so venomously, that Lauren flinches. Not stopping her this time when she leaves. 

xiii. 

She’s twenty-four weeks along when she ends up in hospital. She doesn’t remember what happened. There’d been pain, and then she’d fallen over in the shopping centre. Someone must have called her an ambulance, because she woke up in hospital, with nurses muttering. 

Dyson’s at work, Tamsin too. Bo will fret and panic and if Bo frets and panics, Lauren’s just going to panic. 

She calls Evony. They’ve haven’t spoken since Evony stormed out of her house, but she comes and immediately sets to ordering the doctor’s and nurses around like she’s in charge. When she takes Lauren’s chart, finally showing it to her. Lauren feels something cold drop in her stomach. 

There are results, things the doctor’s have been whispering about. They can’t decipher them, but Lauren can, Lauren knows why her white blood cell count is down, her hormones elevated. She knows why her emotions are strange, why she’s lightheaded and sick. 

“This is impossible.” 

“Ah yes, and since when was this pregnancy following the laws of human nature?” 

“She can’t be _fae_!” Lauren hisses. Because it’s impossible. Lauren was human, Evony may have been fae during sex, but fae offspring required _two_ fae parents, not one. And Lauren is definitely human. 

“She’s fae, and…somehow feeding off of you,” Evony says. She squints at the papers, turning over the results and trying to decipher them. 

Lauren swallows. She’s dying, that’s what Evony was saying. She might not survive the pregnancy. Breathing slowly, stopping a panic attack before it happens, Lauren accepts the limited time she has. She has to be strong. If she can make a serum, something to quell the hunger like she did for Bo, then- 

Evony’s jaw clicks. “I need to see the formula you used to make me human.” 

Lauren lifts her head up, mouth parting. An argument breaks into her head. She doesn’t want Evony fae, doesn’t want her to be fae again. They were equal. She hasn’t had that since Nadia. 

But that’s selfish. Quietly, she tells Evony how to get to her notes. Evony leaves and Lauren’s alone. 

xiv. 

Bo visits her an hour later. They speak, Lauren’s words hushed murmurs as she goes over and over the formula in her head. 

Bo’s understanding, her fingers soft, trailing over Lauren’s skin, pretending like she’s not terrified to see her in the hospital. 

Then, Lauren doesn’t know what follows in the next hour. All she remembers is standing up to use the bathroom and then suddenly, like magic, she’s waking up in the hospital bed with a fretting Bo, and the feeling of being _well_ for the first time in weeks. 

Bo’s done something. 

“You crashed,” Bo admits. “I…I didn’t know what to do. You went to the bathroom and…and we were talking. Then you-“ she babbles, blinking back tears some explanation of suddenly going back and going into a fit before going deathly still. Lauren doesn’t remember it happening. “You were dying and…I gave you my chi. It won’t…it…” she’s trying to ask about the baby, Lauren frowns, sits up. Her child’s moving, but Lauren makes Bo call a doctor, run tests. 

How had they not come in before? 

Except they had, after. Bo had called for them, then put her chi in. They’d come in, probably thinking she’d done CPR on her. 

But the baby’s fine, her results steadying. Doctor’s first thought is _miracle_ before explaining it away as ‘mixed lab results’. 

But Lauren knows. 

The child different, too. She doesn’t feel different, doesn’t act different. But Lauren knows, her child’s different. Something happened. 

xv. 

When Evony returns, it’s the next day. Bo’s sitting by her bed. Evony doesn’t even offer her a second look before she begins yelling at Lauren. 

Bo steps in, telling her to back the fuck off before Evony snaps, “do you know what she did?” 

“Yeah. From what I gathered, she turned you human and you’re still pissed about that!” 

“She didn’t turn me human,” Evony turns, glaring. “You,” she points at Lauren, looking murderous, like she could burn a hole into her head. “Took my _fae_.” 

“No shit,” Bo snaps. 

Evony isn’t acknowledging her any more, she’s just staring at Lauren, stepping closer, dangerously. “That child growing inside of you isn’t human because she’s _pure_ fae, Lauren. She’s _me_ , my essence.” 

“What?” 

“My faehood. My powers, the energy that made me _leanan sidhe_. You stripped that way and it went inside of you.” Then she pauses, waits. Stares at Lauren. 

“You need to leave,” Lauren whispers. 

“Yeah,” Bo agrees. 

“No, you Bo. You need to leave. I have to talk to her.” 

“But-“ 

“Please.” Lauren looks over at her, pleading quietly. With only minor complaint, Bo leaves for coffee. Then, Lauren turns back to Evony. “I died while you were gone.” Evony doesn’t react, she’s quiet, trying to figure out what the words mean. “At least, that’s what Bo says. I crashed, I wasn’t breathing and she gave me chi. Whether I was clinically dead or not, I don’t know. But what I do know is that she gave me chi.” 

“Hers or someone elses?” 

“Hers, I think. I don’t know. But it’s affected the child. I can’t feel it, but I know. Evony, I know…and…” Evony’s careful, methodical in her movements as she steps over and sits on the hospital bed. Then, she places her hand on Lauren’s belly. The child doesn’t move. There’s nothing, but Lauren knows. It sits in the pit of her gut like tar. Something’s different. “Evony,” she whispers. “Bo isn’t pure succubi, her father-“ 

“I know what he is. Who do you think let Aife escape in the first place?” Sighing, Evony’s hand drops away, coming to rest over Lauren’s. She looks sad, tired. Lauren doesn’t know where she sleeps, but it can’t be good for her. 

Then, the pieces click in her mind. “You can’t turn back fae. That’s what’s bothering you.” 

“No, I still am fae, that’s the problem.” Evony’s shoulders tense, the anger growing inside of her, before she deflates. “I’m still fae, I’m just not leanan sidhe.” 

Lauren’s quiet, she feels the hand slip away, sees Evony distance herself. 

Then slowly, she asks. “Can we overcome this?” 

“There’s nothing to overcome, Lauren. There was never a relationship between us.” Standing up, Evony smooths over her dress, her expression the perfect mask of indifference. “I’ll return when the child is born.” 

“Evony.” 

“No.” 

“Evony, don’t you dare!” Panic rises inside of her, pushing up off the bed, Lauren, makes to move. “Evony-“ 

But she’s gone, Bo in her place, staring confused. “What happened?” 

Lauren doesn’t cry. 

Not yet. 


	2. darkness falling, leaves nowhere to go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it was always meant to end this way.

i. 

After the incident in the hospital, Bo stays with her for days. She questions twice what happened with Evony, both times Lauren steels herself, jaw tightening as she looks away. 

She can’t answer her, can’t explain that she’s terrified. Evony will come, she will see the birth of their child, and then she’ll take the child away. And maybe she should tell Bo, have her self hidden away, but Lauren knows Evony won’t be found. She also knows that Evony wishes no harm to come to the child. 

Underneath all of that, she’s hurt. Maybe she’s in love, maybe she just wanted the company. 

It’s Dyson Bo calls in the end, Dyson who comes and stares at her quietly, coming to the answer faster than Bo. Maybe because he understands, maybe because Bo’s in denial. Either way, Lauren stares at the spot on her wall and ignores them both. She thinks of her daughter growing inside of her, of the power twisting in her form, and she wonders what she’ll become. 

Mothers are supposed to wish for their child to be special, to be great. Lauren hopes desperately for mediocre. 

ii. 

Dyson, Tamsin, and Bo visit often. Then, one day, Bo comes over and tells her she’s found a way to get Kenzi back. Lauren aches, terrified, and tells both Tamsin and her loudly that she disapproves of this. That it’s a suicide mission and she doesn’t care about anything else, she just wants them here, with her, safe and sound. An arguments breaks out between Tamsin and Lauren, both fighting to cling to those they love. 

“You’re important!” Lauren snaps. “It’s not just Bo, it’s you as well. I don’t want to lose you either, do you understand that?” 

Tamsin stands dumbstruck, her lips parted, eyes confused then softening, before she turns away. “Well, then, you’re just stupid,” she whispers, looking at Lauren before ducking her head, all words of insult dying on her lips. “If you love Bo, if you _really_ love her, then you know she’s not whole without Kenzi.” 

In the end, Lauren understands, and it’s why she stands at Trick’s side, Dyson’s hand around her shoulders, watching them leave. 

She cries that night, curled up against Dyson. She feels him hold her, holding her like she may fall apart. Or maybe because he has. 

But time in Valhalla bends. It could be years, it could be seconds. Lauren doesn’t know if they’re ever coming back, but she falls into labour first. 

iii. 

She can’t trust the Dark, can’t trust the Light and who knows what’s going to happen in a human hospital. The decision had been made weeks ago to give birth in her home, where it’s clean and safe and nobody knows. 

She falls into labour in the middle of the night with no one around. Dyson doesn’t pick up, and Trick isn’t answering, and _fucking_ Bo and Tamsin are one some _fucking_ suicide mission. She leaves a furious message to both of the men and relents, calling the last number she knew Evony had. Evony doesn’t pick up and Lauren feels fear creeping on her. She’s going to give birth alone in a house that still doesn’t yet feel like home. 

She calls around first. To Dyson’s work, to other phones of Trick’s, not telling them it’s an emergency but asking if she can get in contact (“on duty, he’ll finished around six” is given as a reply for Dyson. No one knows where Trick is.) 

But in the end, Lauren is alone, with fear strangling her logic. 

Three hours after calling Evony and leaving a terrified voice message on her number, the doorbell rings. She moves slowly, clutching at tables and walls when contractions take over. Already, she knows this is going to be a long birth. 

Evony’s at the door, with another person, a doctor she suspects, though their gender is not immediately obvious. 

Lauren feels relief as Evony snarks, “I knew you’d be stupid and trust the happy sunshine gang to be here, so I brought someone who’s _familiar_ with unusual births.” 

“Thank you,” Lauren manages, the word catching Evony off-guard. 

The person doesn’t speak at first, but Lauren’s lead into the lounge, the area quickly made appropriate for a home birth, before Lauren grabs Evony’s hand. “Stay.” A shortened version of _please don’t leave me alone_ or maybe _I need you here_. Lauren’s not sure, but maybe it’s both. 

“Of course I’m staying,” Evony dismisses. “You think I’m going to allow you to run off with my child?” 

Through a scream, Lauren feels herself whimper, hearing the doctor mutter around her vagina. “Don’t take her,” Lauren pleaded. “Please, she’s all I have. Bo’s gone, Tamsin’s gone. Kenzi’s dead and-“ 

“I’m not taking our child,” Evony says, staring at Lauren oddly. “Why do you think I gave you this house? I’m hardly fit to raise a child by myself.” The admittance is off-handed, but Lauren sees Evony’s expression. Knows what it means, even as she cries out again, feeling the child inside of her desperate to come out into the world. 

The birth lasts for thirty-eight hours. Dyson and Trick both arrive in the early morning of the first day, and are quickly screamed at to leave, by Lauren who’s humiliated enough without more people to witness ‘the miracle of life’ and all of the things people don’t tell you about it. That aren’t in the movies. 

But the birth isn’t easy, and Lauren cries and begs and pleads that they just _take the freaking child out of her_. 

Then, finally, at four in the afternoon on the second day, her daughter is born. She hears her cry, the sound softening quickly. Lauren falls back, breathing slowly as she listens delirious to the doctor remove the umbilical chord, clean her, swaddle the babe, all the while, Evony helps her clean up, moving her into the bed. 

It’s quietly done, Evony’s snarks withheld and Lauren feels her chest tighten until the doctor returns, placing her daughter into her arms. 

“Is-“ 

“She’s fae,” the doctor says. “But she shouldn’t feed until puberty.” 

“Bo was seventeen,” Lauren whispers. 

“I was twelve,” Evony replies. Lauren looks up at her, curious before the impact of the words dawn upon her. But a yawn catches her attention, small and almost unheard. Looking down at her, Lauren almost bursts into tears again. 

Blue eyes stare up at her, brown skin and dark hair. Lauren had been born bald, but the child has a dark crop of hair on her head. She yawns again, a cry suckling in her mouth as Lauren pulls her up closer in her chest. Though her muscles are fatigued, and she wants nothing more than to collapse, she desperately needs this after everything. “Hey there little one,” she’s whispers. Her throats hoarse, her eyes blearily, but she smiles, looking down at her child. “You are very special you know?” 

“She’s hardly an hour old,” Evony reminds her. 

“Babies can hear the musical pattern of voice in the womb, they learn very quickly.” Leaning down, she shuts her eyes and presses a kiss to the forehead. “Is she hungry?” 

“No,” Evony tells her. Then, taking a breath, she pulls away from the bed. “I’ll send the two idiots away.” 

“Will you stay?” Lauren asks. 

Evony turns, looking over at her. “Of course.” 

iv. 

The doctor stays, cares for the child, cares for Lauren and makes sure both her and Evony have their number before they leave again. Lauren falls asleep, her arms holding the child against her, as she dreams of colors. When she wakes, Evony is holding their daughter, humming a low tune. 

“Lullaby,” Lauren whispers, her throat sticking around the word. Evony stops, looking over to her and Lauren feels her heart clench, wishing she hadn’t interrupted. 

“I suppose,” Evony says. Taking a breath, she turns her to face Lauren. The child is asleep, but Lauren can see small fingers curling in the blankets. 

“She’s beautiful,” Lauren tells her. 

“Of course she is, she’s our daughter. This child will carry my beauty and your intelligence.” 

“Or my looks and your intelligence.” 

Evony looked at her blankly. “Basically the same thing.” 

Smiling, Lauren let out a breath, sitting up. “Can I…” she feels her self grow nervous, clumsy as she looks to the child. Evony moves over, sitting on the bed, beside Lauren, and carefully hands her over. “She doesn’t have a name.” 

“I’ve thought of a few,” Evony admits. 

“So have I.” Lauren breathes, staring at the child in her arms. Her daughter wakes, there’s a paused moment and then soon her eyes are tracking everywhere, unable to see much. “Why did you leave?” Lauren asks. 

She feels the woman tense beside her, a human reaction. Slowly, Lauren looks over to her. “Don’t ask me that.” 

“You got angry and you left me alone.” 

“You weren’t-“ 

“ _Alone_ ,” Lauren pushes. “And I’ve been trying to understand, but I kept thinking you hated me and-“ 

“I did,” Evony says plainly. “For a time. You turned me human.” 

“I thought you were going to take her away from me.” Lauren’s crying and it’s Evony who comforts her, who cleans the tears and holds her as if it was all just some bad dream. 

“You’re an idiot, sometimes,” Evony sighs. 

Lauren laughs, a sharp hiccup, surprising and frightening the child. Quickly she soothes the fears away, apologizing profusely to a child that can’t yet understand her words. 

v. 

No one but Lauren or Evony are allowed to hold the baby. When Trick steps close, Lauren gives a low, dark look until he steps away. Dyson doesn’t make the same mistake. 

In the time they visit, Evony leaves. She doesn’t like Dyson, likes Trick even less and dismisses herself with an excuse of _things to do_. 

(Which somehow involved the largest teddy bear Lauren’s ever scene being placed in the nursery when she returns – how the hell it fit through the doorframe, she has no idea) 

Lauren frets that when Dyson enters, he’ll immediately know she’s fae, that the little girl is special, and then Trick will freeze and the bubble of happiness she’s in will burst. But he doesn’t. She’s too young. Right now, she smells like every other baby. Like her. 

“She’s beautiful,” Dyson tells her. “But no doubt, a handful.” 

“She’s perfect,” Lauren counters. “Handful or not.” 

vi. 

Kenzi’s home. Tamsin’s home. Bo is _home_. 

They flitter around the baby, Kenzi still trying to wrap her around “magical-science lube knocking Lauren up with the Morrigan? Yeah, totes fine. Happens all the time, I bet!” Followed by nervous laughter before “ooh, she smiled at me. I’m the special one!” 

“It’s gas,” Tamsin replies. 

“Smile.” 

“Gas.” 

“Suck it valkyrie. You’re just jelly that I’m the chosen one.” 

Lauren can see in Kenzi’s eyes however, that something’s different. Something’s wrong. “Valhalla,” Evony says to her. “She was – essentially – in heaven. I bet they even wrangled up the no-fun Ash for her.” 

“Hale?” Lauren turns, looking at Kenzi and sees it. The same look she had coming out of Afghanistan, the look that you don’t know what to do anymore, that you didn’t make a difference, it’s all the same…in the end. You didn’t do _anything_. You don’t matter. Quietly she watches her play with her daughter, wondering what this means. 

vii. 

“I’m leaving.” The words are sudden, spoken without care or grace. Evony’s bags are packed, their gone and Lauren’s just woken up from a midday nap when their child _finally_ fell asleep. 

“You’re _going?_ ” 

“You don’t need me. I’ll be a bad influence on the child or whatever excuse you need to settle the fear inside of you.” 

“You don’t _get_ to leave,” Lauren says, finally feeling the anger well up inside of her. “This is your child, your _daughter_ Charlotte. You can’t just come and go as you-“ 

“Oh shut it. Stop projecting your wester human society views upon me. It’s not uncommon in fae culture to cast children elsewhere. Hell, it’s not uncommon in human to have a nanny raise your child.” 

“Evony-“ 

“No, Lauren. I’m leaving. Out of courtesy for whatever is between us, I’m telling you.” 

The anger flares and dulls inside of her. Lauren doesn’t know what to do, but her daughter is asleep and she doesn’t want to wake her up. “Where are you going?” 

“Europe, then the Middle East. I have unfinished businesses to attend to.” 

“That’s it?” Lauren asks. “Just a goodbye, have a good trip? Is that all you-“ Evony’s pinned her against the wall, her mouth on hers and Lauren struggles before giving into it, trying to hold back the sobs. “I _hate_ you,” Lauren says, finally shoving her way. 

“I’ll be back soon.” 

“How long is soon?” she couldn’t stop herself if she tried, the desperation leaking in her voice to know. _How soon, when soon, why?_

“I don’t know,” Evony says, shrugging her shoulders. “Business.” 

viii. 

Dyson and Kenzi take her daughter to the park. She’s two years old now, toddling around and laughing as Kenzi and Dyson chase her around the duck pond. Lauren’s heart aches. Every day she looks more and more like Evony. It terrifies her. 

She’s had three attempted kidnappings. Two of which Bo, Dyson, Tamsin and Kenzi stopped. And one that succeeded. She’d been eighteen months and Lauren had screamed and cried until the child was returned into her arms by a tall, blonde woman in a suit who said nothing more than, “Charlotte was recovered.” 

When Lauren prompted further, all the woman got gave her was, “the kidnappers were taken care of.” 

There was a blood drop on the arm of her daughter’s shirt, and Lauren knew that the kidnapping wouldn’t happen again. 

“You okay?” Dyson asks her as Kenzi gives her daughter piece of fruit as they sit down on the picnic blanket. 

“No,” Lauren says. “I don’t think I ever will be.” 

Dyson hugs her, kissing her forehead and then Charlotte crying out for her mummy to ‘come play!’ though the words are still a jumbled mess of sounds and tune. 

ix. 

Evony returns home as fae. 

Lauren doesn’t know how, doesn’t know why, but it ends in a screaming match before a young, three year old Charlotte toddles in crying for her mummy to stop yelling. Evony is stunned by the child, how much she’s missed and Lauren doesn’t care. 

She kicks her out. 

x. 

“Two years,” she sighs in the cafe. The anger’s dispersed for now, probably because their in public, maybe because Charlotte’s on her lap, licking cream of the two cupcakes. 

“I told you I didn’t know how long it would take.” 

“But for-“ Lauren sighs again. Tiredly. 

“Not just this, Lauren. I needed to get my estate in order, fix the mess left in the Dark fae. But, as I’ve been re-instated with the fae, I also got to choose my allegiance again,” Evony smirks, looking proudly at her self. 

“So you went with the Dark again, big whoop.” 

Evony looks unimpressed, and mildly digested towards Charlotte. Well too bad, her daughter gets to eat what she wants and this a _treat_. 

“Well, that too, but because of everything, I’ve now become one of the Dark Fae Elders.” Lauren’s teaspoon drops in her coffee, splashing the liquid over the cup. It’s surprise, briefly and then Lauren realises she doesn’t actually care. 

“So?” 

“So, now you have someone high enough unto actually stop a shitstorm happening.” 

“I don’t care about fae politics, Evony. I don’t care if you went back to being the Morrigan or suddenly switched to being the Light. You walked _out_ on your family.” 

“To help.” 

“Don’t give me that bullshit. I know you, I know every inch of your self-absorbed world. And now that you’re back as fae, your back to being your sociopathic self who doesn’t care about me and Charlotte so much as _values_ us as assets.” Lauren stood up, having enough. “I’m done, okay? I’m done with you, with this, with everything. Enjoy your new job position.” 

xi. 

The sex is still fury-filled epic, but Lauren finds herself not caring. She doesn’t know if she loves Evony or what. All she knows is that she can’t untangle herself from the woman, not with a child between them. And as Charlotte’s puberty grows closer with each passing day, Lauren’s not sure what’s going to happen. 

“I’ll take her,” Evony tells her, after a passionate session that leave both of them marked with large bruises and scratch marks over their body. Lauren’s not sure if she could take another round of that, but she feels her anger growing again. 

“Fuck you.” 

xii. 

In the end, Evony does take Charlotte. Lauren has her daughter come back to school, telling her of the two girls that won’t wake up, and then there’s a furious phone call and Charlotte’s gone. 

She’s gone. 

xiii. 

She comes back at the holidays, briefly. Different and Lauren barely recognises her. She doesn’t smile the same way, isn’t as bright. There’s something _wrong_ about her. 

But she’s still her daughter. 

xiv. 

“I love you.” 

“You too,” Charlotte says, shooting her a smile that’s too similar, eerily so. There’s a flash of blue in her eyes before she turns to Evony and Lauren’s stomach drops, knowing what it means. 

xv. 

“She’s not just-“ 

“I know,” Lauren says. “When did her thing back when I was pregnant, she must have…” Lauren sighs. “Bo’s _good_.” 

“Charlotte is brilliant,” Evony cuts at her. “She’s intelligent, way beyond you or I, ambitious, and-“ 

“I don’t want her brilliant, I want her to be good, I want her to be _my_ daughter again.” She doesn’t cry, she’s cried too much over the years. 

“What did you expect Lauren, regardless of what you told yourself over the years, you’re just as capable of sociopathy as I am. You and I are similar. Our child isn’t just brilliant, she’s…” and a smile pulls over the woman’s lips that makes Lauren feel sick. “ _Incredibile_.” 

“Fuck you.” 

And they do, and it’s hard and loud and Lauren hopes that maybe this time, she’ll kill her. 

She doesn’t. 

xvi. 

Lauren grows old and weary. Eventually her terror of her own daughter is pushed aside. Her daughter was always going to be Great. Rather than holding her back, all Lauren does is support her, guides her to at least be a leader who’s intelligent if she refuses to become benevolent. 

There was a period, in her fear, that Lauren and Charlotte pulled away, and for that, Lauren’s glad she gave up her own ideals of what her daughter should be and pushed her to what she wants to become. 

After that, Charlotte changed the fae, tore their structures down faster than Lauren and Bo could have done. She was smart, making alliances and deals with people even Lauren felt sick about, but she wasn’t stupid, didn’t doubt herself. She was perfect and… Lauren realised, _her_ child. 

“I love you, mum,” Charlotte tells her one night, before leaving her house. Lauren thinks she almost means it when says, “you too.” 

xvii. 

Evony comes to visit her on her deathbed, a brush of lips against her own and Lauren laughs, smiling at her. “Did you ever love me?” she asks. 

“Some days,” Evony returns, turning to look at her. 

“Take care of her.” 

“Always.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Evony mentions being bound, this is actually based off Leanan Sidhe mythology. According to some myths, when a Leanan Sidhe asks you to be their lover, you're bound to them, in this world and the Otherworld, but if you refuse, they become bound to you. And with Massimo, I figured, well, it's conceivable. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter!


End file.
